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help lure smaller projects to the state.
• South Dakota charges a 4 percent sales tax on construction projects, as well as a 2 percent contractors' excise tax upon the gross receipts of construction. Few other states have a contractors' excise tax, so construction is cheaper elsewhere.
• The contractors' excise tax collected on those projects will be placed in the Building South Dakota Fund so the state can reinvest in future projects. The new fund would also get a portion of unclaimed property that the state receives from abandoned bank accounts.
• The Reinvestment Payment Program within Building South Dakota allows the Board of Economic Development to waive all or part of the sales tax that would be paid by projects worth $20 million or more. As those projects advance, the program aims to support smaller projects by setting aside money from a 2 percent tax imposed upon the gross receipts of construction into a fund for housing, workforce training and other programs to support a growing workforce.
• Brown said housing is an important piece of the economic development puzzle.
• "You go to any of these rural towns and housing is a pretty big concern," he said. "It's pretty tough to look at creating jobs if you don't have any place to put the employees at the end of the day."
• A fourth element, the South Dakota Jobs Grant Program, will provide grants to projects less than $20 million or with equipment upgrades of less than $2 million.
• Brown said the Legislature will revisit the program next January and is ready to make necessary adjustments and changes. He said that outside the initial $7 million investment, Building South Dakota funds itself so there's little risk.
• "The bottom line is if it doesn't work, it doesn't work," he said. "But it doesn't really cost us anything."
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• HOT SPRINGS, S.D. (AP) -- A 22-year-old Mitchell woman has been named Miss South Dakota 2013.
• Tessa Dee was crowned Miss South Dakota on Saturday night in Hot Springs. Dee, who performed a gymnastics routine for her talent, is a graduate of the University of South Dakota. She won the preliminary swimsuit competition earlier in the week.
• She will represent South Dakota at the Miss American pageant in Atlantic City, N.J., in September.
• First runner-up was Morgan Black of Rapid City, while Autumn Simunek of Hot Springs was named second runner-up.

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